Renewable Energy

Nordergründe Offshore Wind Farm

John Laing Group plc (“John Laing”), the international originator, active investor and manager of infrastructure projects, announced in 2016 that it had acquired a 30% stake in a 110.7MW offshore wind farm project in the German North Sea, just north of the city of Wilhelmshaven.

The Nordergründe project (“Nordergründe ”) is John Laing’s second German wind investment and its first investment in offshore wind. The project achieved financial close in June 2015 with senior debt being provided by the European Investment Bank (EIB), KfW IPEX Bank and other commercial lenders. In addition to John Laing, other shareholders in Nordergründe are wpd AG (30%) and Gothaer Leben Renewables GmbH (40%).

Nordergründe will be delivered and operated by the wpd Group, a large German developer and operator of off-shore and on-shore windfarms, both domestically and internationally, and electricity generation will come from 18 Senvion 6.2 M126 turbines. All foundation piles have been installed and turbine erection is underway. The grid connection is in place, onshore cable and substation works have been completed and offshore cabling works have already begun. The project will benefit from the German feed in tariff mechanism and construction is expected to be completed in Q2 2017.

John Laing received financial advice from Green Giraffe, technical advice from DNV GL, legal advice came from CMS and Tax and accounting advice from PwC.